Turn your back to the wall side.’”
And thereupon old Nana, animated by old recollections, turned her back upon me and stood facing the old bowling-green.
QUEEN BESS’S GAME
“Well done!” cried both children simultaneously. And then Bess called for “Nuts in May.” “You know, what we played last Christmas, when we could’nt go out,” she explained, “because the snow was so deep.”
For a moment Nana looked puzzled.
“You ought to recollect that,” cried Bess, “because it was you that learnt us it before.”
Nana thought for a minute, and then repeated the old Shropshire version of the ancient game, which, tradition says, was written by Queen Bess one Christmas time for Lord Burleigh’s children. But Nana first of all explained to us the action of the game.
“You must know, mam,” she said, “that there are two parties—one of lads and the other of lasses.” “The first come up and call (the lads)—
“‘Here we come gathering nuts in May,
Nuts in May, nuts in May,